There’s a new pay-for-parking system in Bellingham

As of Wednesday, Dec. 6, the pay-for-parking system in Bellingham has converted from paying by stall number to paying via vehicle license plate number. City of BellinghamCourtesy to The Bellingham Herald

As of Wednesday, Dec. 6, the pay-for-parking system in Bellingham has converted from paying by stall number to paying via vehicle license plate number. City of BellinghamCourtesy to The Bellingham Herald

City of Bellingham officials on Thursday announced that there’s a new system in place for how customers pay for parking at city pay stations.

So from paying by stall number, those parking will now have to pay via vehicle license plate number, according to a city news release.

Since the stall numbers are no longer needed, crews have removed them.

There is signage in place with instructions on how to pay for parking, and the pay stations include this information on their screens, officials said.

Sign Up and Save

Officials said the change is part of an overall revamp of the city’s parking system so ticketing and enforcement will be based on license plate recognition or LPR.

“License plate recognition is for all city parking,” said Clark Williams, the city’s Public Works superintendent. “Garage and parking lots permits, as well as street parking – everything is now based on license plates, including our hugely popular PayByPhone app, which launched last December.”

Read Next

Bellingham Police investigators released surveillance video Thursday of what went on in the alley Monday morning behind Hohl Feed & Seed before the flames that ultimately destroyed the building were visible.